15 Of The Richest Actors Joining The DC Comics Universe

For the last handful of years, Marvel movies have been cleaning up at the Box Office. It all started with the first Iron Man film establishing an interconnected cinematic universe, much like the one that was established in the comic books a number of decades ago. The movies have done so well that the studio has plotted movies out going into the 2020s.

In the comic book industry, DC and Marvel have always been neck-and-neck in terms of readership. Each publisher has its own set of loyal fans. This hasn’t been the case when it comes to films. DC has only really had success in the modern era with its Batman and non-superhero properties. When DC tried to give another hero a go it turned out terribly. Not only was Green Lantern considered the worst superhero movie of all time, it was considered one of the worst movies in general.

Finally, DC had some luck with their most recent Superman film, The Man of Steel. The movie teased a few things that got viewers hyped for a shared universe, such as S.T.A.R. Labs, which has ties to characters like The Flash and Cyborg. In the last year, DC made some huge announcements in regards to a shared cinematic universe. Instead of making a bunch of stand-alone films, they’d be introducing a lot of characters in team-up movies, and then split them off into their own films. This led to the casting of two films:

Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad. Let’s take a look at the wealthiest actors and actresses announced for the upcoming DC cinematic universe.

15.Ezra Miller

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Net Worth: $500,000

At this point, Ezra Miller is probably best known for his role as Damien on the ShowTime series Californication and for his role as Patrick in the film adaptation of The Perks of Being A Wallflower. As some readers may know, DC plans to keep its television universe separate from its cinematic universe. Ezra Miller’s announcement to play The Flash in a film version of the character didn’t quite sit right with Arrow star Stephen Amell. Amell’s issue with the announcement is that it came just few short days after Grant Gustin’s (amazing) The Flash television show premiered. The timing did seem a little disrespectful to Gustin, especially since The Flash film is projected for a 2018 release.

14.Ray Fisher

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Net Worth: $500,000

Ray Fisher is a relative unknown at this point. Fisher is more known for his roles on the stage rather than his roles on television or the big screen. In fact, his first role in cinema will be his role as Victor Stone in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Victor Stone is the man who will become DC’s Cyborg. Since Batman v. Superman is only placing the initial building blocks of the shared cinematic universe, and the inevitable Justice League movies, there’s no telling if Fisher will be playing both Stone and Cyborg in the upcoming film or if he’ll just be putting in a cameo as Stone. Regardless of how things go in Batman v. Superman, Fisher is up for a role in a stand-alone Cyborg movie, as well as a future Justice League movie.

13.Jai Courtney

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Net Worth: $3 Million

Jai Courtney is slowly becoming a huge name in the action genre these days. After hitting it big in the Spartacus television series, things haven’t slowed down for the actor. Since then, he has been in Jack Reacher with Tom Cruise, and in the fifth film in the Die Hard series as hero John McClane’s son alongside Bruce Willis.

When Courtney joins DC’s Suicide Squad film, it will be yet another big franchise on his ever growing list. Outside of joining the Die Hard films, Courtney is also in the Divergent films, and will soon be appearing in the next Terminator film.

12.Viola Davis

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Net Worth: $3 Million

Viola Davis has had a very impressive career. She’s also been nominated for two Oscars, one for Best Actress in a Lead Role and another for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for The Help and Doubt respectively. Viola Davis will be joining the DC Universe in the Suicide Squad film as Amanda Waller. Waller isn’t a super-powered individual, but she’s one of the most feared and most ruthless women in the DC Universe. The character is generally a villain, but has also been used in the role of an anti-hero as well.

11.Jason Mamoa

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Net Worth: $4 Million

DC’s most recent announcement came in the form of an image leak from Batman v. Superman director Zack Snyder. The image showed Jason Momoa in his full Aquaman apparel. Much like the case with Ray Fisher as Cyborg, there isn’t much info yet on how big of a role Aquaman will play in the upcoming Batman v. Superman film, but he’ll definitely have bigger roles in the Justice League films, as well as the stand-alone Aquaman film.

It’s interesting to note that not too long ago, the Aquaman character was the butt of a number of jokes. Recent adaptations of the character have since made him more viable again.

10.Gal Gadot

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Net Worth: $5 Million

Gal Gadot is also joining the cast of Batman v. Superman in a role that may or may not just be laying down some groundwork before a stand-alone Wonder Woman film or the first Justice League film. If the Marvel and DC films keep their projected dates, it’s very possible that DC will have made the first modern superhero film starring a female before the cinematic powerhouse that is Marvel will have accomplished the task. It has even been said that leaked images of Gal Gadot in costume as Wonder Woman is what may have prompted Marvel to move forward with a Carol Danvers Captain Marvel movie.

9.Joel Kinnaman

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Net Worth: $6 Million

Joel Kinnaman is a Swedish actor that’s recently made the jump to big Hollywood. His career in the U.S. started with his role as Detective Stephen Holder in AMC’s acclaimed series The Killing. The actor is probably best known for his recent role as Alex Murphy/Robocop in the Robocop film reboot.

Kinnaman has recently joined the cast of DC’s Suicide Squad as the character of Rick Flagg. The role was initially going to go to actor Tom Hardy. Hardy had to drop from the film since his shooting for the film The Revenant was going over schedule. In the comic books Flagg is the leader of the Suicide Squad, so this should be a big role for Kinnaman considering Robocop performed below expectations.

8.Cara Delevingne

Net Worth: $6 Million

Cara Delevingne is a relatively new talent with her first big role in film or television being Princess Sorokina in the film adaptation of the classic novel Anna Karenina. Most of her upcoming films have yet to be released but they include a much buzzed about live-action adaptation of Peter Pan, as well as the upcoming Suicide Squad. In the latter film about a group of villains given an opportunity to make a mission of redemption, Delevingne plays the DC villain turned anti-hero know as Enchantress. The character has quite a wild history in the comic book universe; it will be interesting to see how they establish it without stand-alone films for the characters first.

7.Henry Cavill

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Net Worth: $8 Million

Unlike the first handful of people on the list, Henry Cavill actually has a film in the announced shared cinematic universe for the DC comic book characters. The stepping stones were first established in The Man of Steel, a film that starred Henry Cavill in the role of Superman. The whole notion of DC even having a shared cinematic universe (like the one established by Marvel Comics) all rested on how successful the Henry Cavill Superman film performed at the box office. Fortunately for fans of DC Comics, the movie did well enough to spawn a sequel, Batman v. Superman, which will be introducing many of the characters that will be getting their own films in the future.

6.Margot Robbie

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Net Worth: $8 Million

Margot Robbie is probably best known for her role as Donna Freedman/Brown in the series Neighbours. She can also be seen as Naomi Lapaglia in the highly acclaimed The Wolf of Wall Street. Margot’s role in the DC cinematic universe is one that fans of Batman have wanted to see in a Batman movie for quite some time. In the upcoming Suicide Squad film, Margot will be playing Harley Quinn. Even though Harley Quinn is typically a villain, the character is easily the most popular female character in the entire DC comic book universe.

Unlike many famous comic book characters, Harley Quinn didn’t actually first appear in the comic books. Her first appearance was in FOX’s Batman: The Animated Series.

5.Jesse Eisenberg

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Net Worth: $10 Million

Jesse Eisenberg is best known for his role as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in the Oscar winning film The Social Network. Despite the fact that Eisenberg is a highly respected actor, many people are worried if Eisenberg can pull of the role of Superman’s greatest adversary, Lex Luthor in the upcoming Superman v. Batman: Dawn of Justice film. Some people were also a little disappointed that the role didn’t go to Bryan Cranston of Breaking Bad, as originally rumored.

In addition to playing Luthor in Superman v. Batman, it’s rumored that Eisenberg will also be playing the character in Suicide Squad as well.

4.Jared Leto

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Net Worth: $40 Million

The upcoming Suicide Squad film will be including one of the most popular villains in both cinema and comic book history. That villain is Batman’s greatest enemy, The Joker.

Many of people have been worried about the inevitable recasting of the Joker since Heath Ledger nailed the role and earned a posthumous Oscar for the part. Fortunately, Leto is known for taking challenging roles and for going to the next level to nail a part. A testament to this can be seen in the film Chapter 27 when Leto underwent an extreme physical transformation to play Mark David Chapman, the man who assassinated John Lennon.

Leto has referred to The Joker as “Shakespearean” and “a beautiful disaster.” It sounds like he’s definitely taking the role very seriously.

3.Ben Affleck

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Net Worth: $75 Million

It’s quite possible that there has never been casting news in the history of the Internet that caused as big of a stir as Ben Affleck being announced as the new Batman for the Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice film. Despite the fact that Affleck has churned out a number of Oscar winning works, it would seem that some people just don’t want to forget films like Phantoms, Reindeer Games, or the (almost) career killing Gigli.

Fortunately, people have seemed to come around to the idea once photos of Affleck in costume had leaked. Affleck has also gotten a lot of hype, positive talk, and support from director Kevin Smith. Smith generally has a good deal of cred with the comic book reading crowd.

2.Dwayne Johnson

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Net Worth: $125 Million

Unlike the bulk of the list, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson won’t be appearing in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, nor will he be appearing in the heavily hyped Suicide Squad. It was originally rumoured that the former wrestler turned serious actor would be playing Shazam (formerly known as Captain Marvel) in the film Shazam! slated for a 2019 release. Many people responded to the news with, “He’d make a much better Black Adam.” Fortunately, it turns out that The Rock will indeed be playing Shazam’s greatest foe, known as Black Adam.

Shazam! is the story of a young boy named Billy Batson who turns into a powerful adult superhero (think Superman with additional lightning powers) whenever he shouts the magic word, “Shazam!”

1.Will Smith

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Net Worth: $240 Million

It’s a little surprising to see Will Smith in a high-profile comic book film considering his last few movies haven’t quite performed to his usual par. Many people thought that when Smith was announced that this would mean he’d be playing either Aquaman’s treasure-hunting enemy Black Manta, or recent Suicide Squad member Black Spider. This was largely due to the fact that Black Manta and Black Spider are black characters. It would later be released that Smith would be playing Deadshot, one of the DC universe’s most deadly villains. A few people were grumpy about the fact that Deadshot is a white character, but luckily that viewpoint is from the vocal minority.

This should be an interesting role for the actor, considering he’s usually shown in a hero’s light.